Messenger RNA or mRNA helps translate the coding in DNA into proteins. For years we have thought there were only four bases in RNA, but researchers have found a fifth, made when the body adds a methyl group to adenine. This changes how the proteins are made and could lead to a number of diseases.

Researchers have made synthetic genetic material, called XNA. This uses six altered bases, made from the existing ‘letters’ in DNA, thymine, adenine, guanine and cytosine (T, A, G and C). The synthetic XNA could replicate and evolve. This could help us learn about how DNA began, and could one day lead to creation of synthetic life, though that is a very long way off.